September 14, 2005 University of Maryland --
During perimenopause (the multiyear phase in which the body prepares for menopause), the woman's body makes a decided shift in just where it stores the fat, migrating from the lower extremity to the upper. The ovaries produce less estrogen and now the adrenal glands work harder to produce more estrogen and in so doing interact with interact with the brain in a way that increase the appetite.
Lifestyle changes compound the problem. Women would be wise not to ignore these issues, and wiser still not to use them as excuses to allow their bodies to go to pot, says Dr. Pamela Peeke, author of the new book Body-for-Life for Women and the 2000 best seller Fight Fat After Forty.
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"After crossing the threshold to 40, All of a sudden, I had a roll around my stomach…"
-- Tamilee Webb, Star of "Abs of Steel"
Unfortunately women don't typically lift weights during their life to maintain their muscle mass. By age 45, could lead to a loss of 10 pounds of calorie-burning muscle tissue and a corresponding gain of 20 to 40 pounds of fat -- and the dreaded menopot.
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Changes After Age 40 Can Be As Dramatic as Puberty
According to Peeke, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, and other experts, the changes the body undergoes after 40 can be every bit as dramatic as puberty and can lead to some daunting fitness challenges, including:
Decreased estrogen levels. Before perimenopause, estrogen directs fat to the hips, thighs and buttocks, so unless a woman has been eating right and exercising, she may enter her 40s with an ample lower half. Then, as her estrogen levels decline, fat storage shifts to her upper body, and the woman soon will be battling a back roll, "batwing arms" and a thicker waist, Peeke says.
A tubby tummy. Women store excess belly fat outside and beneath the abdominal wall. Peeke calls the "fluffy, pinch-an-inch fat" outside the abdominal muscles the "menopot." Most women will get one.
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Changes After Age 40 Can Be As Dramatic as Puberty
According to Peeke, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, and other experts, the changes the body undergoes after 40 can be every bit as dramatic as puberty and can lead to some daunting fitness challenges, including:
Decreased estrogen levels. Before perimenopause, estrogen directs fat to the hips, thighs and buttocks, so unless a woman has been eating right and exercising, she may enter her 40s with an ample lower half. Then, as her estrogen levels decline, fat storage shifts to her upper body, and the woman soon will be battling a back roll, "batwing arms" and a thicker waist, Peeke says.
A tubby tummy. Women store excess belly fat outside and beneath the abdominal wall. Peeke calls the "fluffy, pinch-an-inch fat" outside the abdominal muscles the "menopot." Most women will get one.
"Menopot"
The menopot is not associated with illness. But deep-down abdominal fat raises a woman's risk for heart disease, diabetes and cancer and should be viewed as a preventable (and reversible) health threat.
Exhausted adrenals. With the ovaries producing less and less estrogen, the adrenal glands, which also produce the female sex hormone, step in to pick up the slack, says Tiffany Crate, a certified professional fitness coach and founder of TLC Fitness Consulting in Chicago.
The adrenals also produce hormones that, in conjunction with brain chemicals, trigger the body's response to stress. These stress hormones also stimulate appetite and, over time, cause abdominal weight gain.
Oftentimes, the adrenals work overtime cranking out stress hormones and are therefore less equipped to aid in estrogen production. Inadequate estrogen levels fuel stress by causing fatigue, triggering food cravings and sapping a woman's motivation to exercise.
Decreased basal metabolism and muscle mass. Starting at age 20, a woman's metabolism declines at the rate of 5 percent every decade, Peeke said.
Lifetime Loss of Lean Muscle Mass
Also beginning in her 20s, a non-exercising woman will lose an average of 5 pounds of muscle mass -- which raises metabolism -- each decade until menopause, at which time she'll start losing 7 per decade. By the time she's 45, the non-exerciser will have lost at least 10 pounds of calorie-burning muscle tissue and gained 20 to 40 pounds of fat, Crate says.
Women who diet repeatedly over the decades without doing muscle-building exercises may lose a whopping 25 percent of their muscle mass because their bodies resort to burning muscle for fuel, Crate adds. And that's counterproductive: For every pound of muscle that's lost, they lose the capacity to burn 35 to 50 calories a day just by sitting.
Child Rearing Burned Many Calories in the Past
Decreased daily activity. Countless women have told Peeke that they feel they need to work out twice as hard in their 40s as they did in their 20s and 30s to see results. What they're not taking into account, though, is that their overall level of daily activity has decreased. "If you think about it, you're no longer chasing kids and lifting them in and out of a Dodge Caravan," Peeke says. "You need to make up for the difference."
Loss of elasticity. As women age, the thin layer of connective tissue between their subcutaneous fat cells becomes brittle and pulls apart. The fat then pushes through the holes, and rippled, dimpled cellulite is the result.
In addition, pregnancy can cause the stomach muscles and skin to slacken.
Even fitness celebrity Tamilee Webb, star of the "Abs of Steel" videos of the 1990s, didn't escape the menopot. After crossing the threshold to 40, "All of a sudden, I had a roll around my stomach," she said.
The softening of her iron-hard abs prompted Webb, now 46, to write a book for middle-age women called Tamilee Webb's Defy Gravity Workout. In the introduction, she writes, "I'm learning ways to love and accept my body, even though it is more difficult today to keep myself fit, strong and in tip-top condition than it was 10 years ago."
Source: Dawn Klingensmith of the Chicago Tribune
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